New York's governor has declared a health emergency over a flu epidemic that has struck 19,000 people.

"We do tend to parallel the Northern Hemisphere in the south so it's a forewarning that we need to get in early and vaccinate this year. "

Dr Hambleton said the flu would still come in our winter, but that widespread vaccination would protect the vulnerable and reduce the effects in the healthy.

Vaccinations are tailored each year to match the expected strains that develop, mutate, and travel around the world.

The virulent Influenza A strain is the most common, but Influenza B and the H1N1 swine flu are still active.

Influenza Specialist Group chairman, virologist Dr Alan Hampson said they can never be sure what the upcoming flu season will hold but that the situation in the US "does tend to alert us to the fact we may well suffer something similar" and that experts were "watching with interest".

"We really can't predict what's going to happen. It's best to anticipate it could be a bad season particularly for those prone to bad outcomes if they do contract influenza," he said.

This robot will help out researchers by simulating how vomiting could spread the Norovirus.

"We will soon be heading into the vaccination time. From what I understand from colleagues overseas the vaccine we'll have should be a very good match for the strains circulating in other parts of the world."

Dr Hampson said there were also outbreaks in Hong Kong, and that south-east Asian influenzas often flowed in to Australia.

The specially formulated vaccine will be available in March and will protect against Influenza A (H2N3), Influenza B, and swine flu.

Tens of thousands of Australians get the flu each year, many are hospitalised and some die. The most vulnerable are older people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, pregnant women and anyone with an underlying health problem.

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Comments on this story

Momo of Perth Posted at 1:18 AM January 15, 2013

Ooooohhh the crazies are out today!! Puleeze, antivax people, you have to be trolls right? Nobody is that ignorant, right?!

Shaun of Australia Posted at 12:36 AM January 15, 2013

Valdamar Valerian, Ida Honoroff, Eustace Mullins and others have exposed the fact that vaccinations lead to the very diseases they are meant to prevent and have cost the world millions of deaths. WB Clark wrote in the NY Press in 1909: Cancer was practically unknown until the cowpox vaccination began to be introduced. I have seen 200 cases of cancer, and I never saw a case of cancer in an unvaccinated person.

Jay of Perth Posted at 12:26 AM January 15, 2013

Get your facts right Queen B, flu shots do not cause the flu. They only protect against the most common strains of the flu virus and it usually doesn't kick in until about 2 weeks after getting the injection. It's also not going to protect you against a mutated strain of the virus. Get yourself educated before you go spreading idiotic nonsense. FLU SHOTS DO NOT CAUSE THE FLU!!!

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